​In September, I received notice that my book, The Caging at Deadwater Manor, won an Honorable Mention Award in YA Horror with Readers' Favorite. It was around 11 p.m. when I opened the email that night, and as you can imagine, I couldn't sleep! I mean, I'm a debut novelist. How in the world did I win an award?

But I did! Readers' Favorite provided me with a certificate and medallion for marketing, a website with my five-star review, press releases and an opportunity to go to a banquet to receive recognition for my award. The event included a reception, presentations, inclusion of my book in the Miami Book Fair, an award ceremony, press releases, and opportunities for networking. So, I decided to go.

The event started last Friday night at The Regency Hotel in Miami. A reception was held in the evening where the books were displayed on a counter near check in with an adjacent bar and seating area. Numerous authors attended. It was great to hear about all of their books and the stories behind them. I met author Ju Ephraime and spent quite a while talking with her.

After, we were escorted to a conference room where we saw presentations from various speakers on marketing from doing podcasts to social media posts. They were excellent, and I plan on using many of the resources provided.

The next morning, my husband and I went to the Miami Book Fair to see my book displayed at the Readers' Favorite tent. Wow! This event was huge with crowds of people! There were so many vendors with new and used books, merchandise and services. We found the Readers' Favorite tent - it had great signage and was staffed. Inside all of the award winning books were displayed. Each author donated books to sell and all proceeds went to Shriner's (over $2,000 raised!). It was such a proud moment to see my book on a shelf for the first time! I picked up a few books, and of course, had to get one on geology!

That night, we dressed up and attended the award ceremony. It was impressive with a stage, two areas with professional photography (I'll receive the photos in a couple of weeks), the press, a live feed during the awards, buffet, and lots of time to talk with other authors.

Speaking of which, I have to say how honored I felt even being in the same room with these tremendously talented people from authors to illustrators. Some have been published for many years and were a wealth of knowledge. All were passionate about their books and mine, too. That's the one thing I've learned since I started this journey. Authors are supportive of each other and always willing to help. I love this positive community.

The award ceremony involved going on stage, shaking hands with the Readers' Favorite representative (Mark Wayne Adams), and having my picture taken - all on live stream. I have to admit, I was a bit concerned with tripping or doing something stupid at first, but then I decided not worry about it - this was my night and I was going to enjoy it. And I did (and luckily didn't land on my face! Haha!).

​After the stage, we were escorted to another area for more photography and press interviews. It was certainly a night I will always remember. It felt surreal to be recognized for this book -- one that my dad inspired. He passed before seeing the book published, but I know he was up there on that stage with me, grinning and proud! Love you, Dad.

Thank you, everyone, for your continued support with The Caging at Deadwater Manor. As you know, though Deadwater Manor is fictional, the book is set in the vicinity of my home. So, I thought I'd share a few photos of the area! Here's a sneak peek of one of the scenes in the book!

So excited to be part of the B2B Cyber Conference this year! I'll be participating in the Goodreads Author Showcase, Blog Hop, Genre Tour, Book Expo on April 7-9 and Author Interview on April 26 at 7 pm. I hope you have a chance to check out all the exciting activities going on at B2BCyCon - there are lots of talented authors and giveaways!

It's almost here - finally! The Caging at Deadwater Manor will be released on March 31, 2017!

I have hired a book promoter to help me get this book noticed. Suzanne Moore is a specialist with social media marketing and the Amazon ranking system. The idea is to gain as much exposure as possible prior to the release date and sell as many ebooks as possible on March 31. This will move my book up the ranks on Amazon who will then help me with promotions as well. Plus, if the book ranks high enough, this will be a great selling point for future books.

What's going on: ALOT!We've already started book promotions as follows:

Deadwater Manor Virtual Team Facebook Group - I have started a Facebook Group for my virtual team. These members have signed up to receive marketing products to post on their social media pages and emails on March 31 and April. I will be posting promotion updates and insider information about my book in this group. All the promotions including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. and emails text and graphics will be prepared by Suzanne's team and provided to all participants, making it quick and easy to share my book that day. If you'd like to join in, please sign up for my virtual team at the green button below.

New book webpage - I have purchased a new webpage for the book at www.deadwatermanor.com. The webpage is not live yet, as Suzanne will be working her magic on preparing the landing page for the release date. I'll make an announcement as soon as it's live!

Blog Hop and Facebook Live Event Signups - I've begun to sign up for blog hops and Facebook Live events to share information about my book and support other authors. So far, I've signed up for two events:

Our Books Are Not Free Facebook Event. I'll be posting live on 2/13/17 at 6:30 PM EST.

Brandi Kennedy Blog Hop. I'll be participating in a blog hop for Brandi Kennedy's new book release on 2/26/17.

Researching Book Tours, PodCasts, and Facebook Live videos

Prior to the release, I'll be on book tours, podcasts and Facebook Live. I'm currently researching the best way to do these and will let you know when they are scheduled.

It's going to be a busy couple of months, but it looks like a good plan in preparation for release day. I can't wait to see all the promotion products from Suzanne and her team. Please share this blog, my website, social media posts and emails as much as you can. I'm a new author, so I need all the help I can get!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope this year brings much happiness and success to you. I'm looking forward to an exciting 2017 with launching two books and finishing up my third novel. This will come with lots of outreach and promotions which I'm excited to learn and share with you.

The Caging at Deadwater Manor has now been signed over to me from my former publisher (I decided to leave them), so now I own both the book and the book cover. Waiting for this delayed the December release, but it will give me time to prepare for the upcoming release in March 2017. I'm currently looking at book promotion options, blog hops and other ways to get the word out. As soon as I have an exact date of release, I'll let you know.

My second book is a young adult historical time travel which I describe on my home page. This was actually the first book I wrote and I've held back publishing it due to the Irish Gaelic that I included, requiring additional editing time. This will be a series titled, "Time Lands," and is about a teenage girl from today who meets a guy from 1849 Ireland who's living through the Great Irish Hunger. I plan on having the main characters, Carly Matthews and Liam Healy, explore a different time period and history for each novel, all the while trying to evade the pursuit of Liam's old landlord who wants nothing more than to bring her "slave" back to her time. The historical settings for each novel in the upcoming series will be unusual ones that you don't hear about too much in school. I can't wait to bring this series to you and for you to join Carly and Liam on their adventures back through time. This book will be released in late 2017.

In the meantime, I'm currently writing a third novel titled, "Vision's Edge." This is another psychological thriller about a young man who is tortured by his past. I can't reveal much about the book for now, but I can say that he has a peculiar way of handling his pain.

Again, I hope you have a wonderful year ahead. Thank you for following my blog and watching for my upcoming book release!

As you can imagine, seeing the book cover for The Caging at Deadwater Manor can conjure up memories of experiences or stories of old psychiatric hospitals or hauntings. My employer recently announced my upcoming book release on their newsletter, and I've had several coworkers stop by my office to share their experiences with me -- several of which have given me chills.

One such experience came from Nick Makris who grew up near Cedar Grove, New Jersey, home of the infamous psychiatric hospital named the Essex County Hospital Center (aka The Overbrook, sanatorium, asylum, etc.). The hospital opened in 1896 and was used to treat tuberculous and patients with mental illness. Nick remembers riding his bicycle several miles and seeing his grandfather who worked as a barber in the hospital when he was young. He later visited the hospital after it was abandoned and took pictures as part of a photography class -- forgotten photos that have been sitting in a shoebox until today. He gave me permission to use the photos to help promote my book, so I thought I'd share them as a blog post since they are right in line with the theme of my book. The pictures have an eery feel since Nick tried out different photography techniques during this visit back in 1993. Thank you, Nick!

Coincidentally, another coworker viewed the photos and mentioned that she had heard all sorts of stories about the patients and treatments at the hospital from a previous professor. She could barely look at the photos.

In my last newsletter, I asked which photo was from an actual psychiatric hospital in my latest trailer. If you guessed the first picture in the slideshow below - you were right!

How about you? Would you visit an old, abandoned psychiatric hospital?

This week I created another video trailer for my upcoming book release. The scenery pictures were taken in a nearby park, and the videos were taken along a narrow road that parallels the Gulf Coast of Florida. This is what Jeannie was seeing as she road her bike to meet her friends at the beach in the beginning of the book. The video gives you a glimpse of the book setting and some of what I was envisioning as I wrote about the inside of the psychiatric hospital.

I also included one photo taken in an actual sanatorium before it was demolished. Can you tell which picture it is in the video? I'll include more information on the sanatorium, and how I was able to obtain the picture in the next newsletter.

Here's the link to the new video:

Thank you for viewing. There will be more insights on the book in next week's newsletter. Until then, have a great week!

This week, I thought I'd keep you up-to-date on my upcoming Facebook events, where you can stop by to see my newsfeeds about the book. These events are usually all day and numerous authors sign up for time slots. You can view mine as well as the other authors who usually offer great contests and giveaways such as signed copies of their books! This is similar to what you'd see in your local library where you can view new books and talk with the author -- only virtual! If you'd like to attend, just click on the links below, tap going or interested, and it will automatically show up in your Facebook feed the day of the event. You can also invite friends using the invite button at the top of the screen.

Note: Facebook will default to showing most or all of the feeds once you click "going." If you do not want to see them all, you can change the notifications settings located below the event picture (you may need to click on the "..." button next to the invite button to see "Notification Settings").

I'm still waiting to hear from the publisher on the release. Thank you for your continued support. I truly appreciate it!

New Book Promotion Image!

Hi everyone!

Still waiting for word on the release date for my new novel. In the meantime, I've been creating some promotional images. Here's my latest:​

I created this image on Canva and it was very easy. The window picture was free at the website, and then I just added a few more items. Best of all, the website saves the image for future use or edits. Let me know if you have any suggestions in the comments below.

I'm also looking for beta readers so I will have reviews for the book release. If you're interested in reading the book before it's released and leaving a review, let me know at sandie@sandiewill.com. I'll be setting up an easy form on my webpage that will provide review questions to make the process simpler. I need lots of reviews, so feel free to pass my email to anyone you think might be interested. More to come!

Hope you're all having a fantastic weekend and thanks for your support!

Such an exciting day today! I received notification that my employer made an announcement to all their website followers to see my book trailer. And then, later found out they did a nice post announcing the trailer and blog they wrote on their website. It was nine hours ago, and I've had over 70 views of the book trailer since then. I can't tell you how much it means to have my employer support my new book - The Caging at Deadwater Manor. What a great way to spread the word!

Facebook Post:

Learn how one of our staff members has turned her passion for the paranormal into a published novel. Plus, get a sneak peek by watching the trailer. ​

Email Announcement

Watch the Video Trailer of an Upcoming Book by a District Staff MemberSouthwest Florida Water Management District sent this bulletin at 08/11/2016 09:24 AM EDT

Learn how one of our staff members has turned her passion for the paranormal into a published novel. Plus, get a sneak peek by watching the trailer.

Book Trailer

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Sandie Will is an author who has a new YA psychological thriller - The Caging at Deadwater Manor. She is an avid blogger on this website as well as her science blog. She can be found on Twitter as @SandieWillBooks and @RockHeadScience, as well as her Facebook page at Sandie Will, Author.

"Enthusiasm with a scientist's rigor and a dollop of fun." --Rachel Stirling @Stirlingwriter